Anomalous slowing down of the vibrational relaxation of liquid water upon nanoscale confinement

We study the vibrational dynamics of nanodroplets of liquid water with femtosecond two-color midinfrared pump-probe spectroscopy. For the smallest nanodroplet, containing 10-15 water molecules, the lifetime T1 of the O-H stretch vibrations is equal to 0.85+/-0.1 ps, which is more than 3 times as lon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 94; no. 17; p. 178301
Main Authors Dokter, Adriaan M, Woutersen, Sander, Bakker, Huib J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 06.05.2005
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Summary:We study the vibrational dynamics of nanodroplets of liquid water with femtosecond two-color midinfrared pump-probe spectroscopy. For the smallest nanodroplet, containing 10-15 water molecules, the lifetime T1 of the O-H stretch vibrations is equal to 0.85+/-0.1 ps, which is more than 3 times as long as in bulk liquid water. We find that the truncation of the hydrogen-bond network of water leads to a dramatic change of the relaxation mechanism.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.94.178301